Estate Planning Attorney in Connecticut
What is Estate Planning?
An estate plan protects the people and things that matter to you most. Estate planning documents are intended help protect you, your family, and assets while you’re alive as well as after death.
What Estate Planning documents do people need?
For most people, the basic estate planning documents most Connecticut residents need include:
- Will: directs who receives your assets after death, names the person (or people) you trust to act as Executor to manage your assets, and appoints a Guardian of any children under 18 years of age (if applicable). If you don’t have a Will then Connecticut law determines who gets your assets and the Probate Court will appoint an Administrator to manage and distribute your assets.
- Durable Power of Attorney Instrument (“POA”): appoints someone to manage assets and make financial decisions if your’e alive but unable to do so yourself. If you don’t have a POA and you’re alive but incapacitated and unable to manage your finances or sign legal documents then someone must ask the Probate Court to appoint a Conservator of your Estate (may take 30+ days, requires a Physician’s involvement), a Probate Court hearing.
- Health Care Instructions (a/k/a “Living Will” or “HCI”): appoints someone to make medical decisions if your’e alive but unable to do so yourself. If you don’t have HCI and you’re alive but incapacitated and unable to express your medical wishes then someone must ask the Probate Court to appoint a Conservator of your Person (may take 30+ days, requires a Physician’s involvement), a Probate Court hearing.
- For some people, a Revocable Trust (“Living Trust”) is appropriate to help manage assets while you’re alive and reduce/eliminate the Probate Court involvement after your death. While heavily marketed by many attorneys, a Living Trust is not always right for everyone. It is important to gather the facts and asses your personal circumstances to determine if a Living Trust may benefit you.
Why use our firm to help draft your Estate Planning documents?
We’ve spent years developing our estate planning documents and continuously improve upon our documents to reflect the most recent Connecticut laws, as well as what’s relevant in our world (i.e. Digital Assets). Our exclusive focus on estate planning, estate administration/probate, and elder issues enables us to use our knowledge in these overlapping areas to draft our estate planning documents in ways that streamline the estate administration, expedite or completely avoid the Probate process, and, when applicable, protect assets for long-term care planning issues (such as Medicaid a/k/a Title XIX). Our documents are customized to reflect your particular family and financial circumstances and goals.
How do I put an Estate Plan in place?
We understand that discussing estate planning matters, including incapacity, death, and making difficult decisions about who to trust to watch over young children or handle finances is difficult for most people and something that is easy to put off. But if you don’t decide, Connecticut laws will decide for you. We’ve streamlined our estate planning process to clearly guide you through how to make decisions and we will draft and finalize your estate planning documents in an organized and efficient way. Contact us to obtain our brief estate planning worksheet and schedule your free in-person or phone consultation.
What clients say about working with us:
Most clients sign their estate planning documents and say “Wow! That was painless. Thanks for making it so easy!” To read more about what our clients have to say about working with us read our Client Testimonials